Extended
by Orthographer
Summary: When Blaine's parents are out of town during Dalton's extended weekend, Blaine winds up staying with Rachel. Blainchel friendship.


A/N: I wrote this fic in early April (before Night of Neglect aired but after Original Song), and I'm just getting around to posting it now. Enjoy. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: If I mention it, I probably don't own it.

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><p>In retrospect, it was probably a good thing that Blaine's parents had been out of town that weekend.<p>

At first it had been a hassle. You see, every so often Dalton had an extended weekend, which was basically a four-day weekend where the school administrators kicked all the students off campus. This was supposedly "to facilitate students' relationships with their families", although most of the students suspected that it was really just to give the residential staff a break for once. Either way, Blaine had to leave campus, and his parents were out of town. And while Blaine wasn't exactly eager to spend more time with his parents, there was the matter of finding somewhere to stay.

His first thought was to stay with Kurt, but it turned out the Hummel-Hudsons were using the weekend for family bonding time, so having Blaine stay over was a big no. He asked all the Warblers he was friendly with next, but they all seemed to be going on vacation. There seemed to only be one choice left.

"Hi, Rachel," Blaine said. "Could you do me kind of a huge favor?"

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><p>It was amazing what a sexual identity crisis could do. Ever since their misguided relationship, Rachel and Blaine had become fairly good friends. They didn't see each other too often, since Blaine was at boarding school, but they'd IM each other, and they'd get coffee together if Blaine was around on the weekend. So when Blaine asked to stay with Rachel during extended, her only concern was getting her dads on board.<p>

Rachel hung up the phone and ran to the living room. "Dad, Daddy," she started. "Do you remember Blaine?"

The Mr. Berrys nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well, this coming weekend, Dalton is making all the students go home, and Blaine's parents are out of town. Could he possibly stay with us?" Rachel said, offering them her best smile.

"When would this be?" Hiram asked.

"Thursday night to Monday night. I have it all worked out. He can stay in the guest room, and he says he'll have schoolwork to keep him occupied when I'm in school on Friday and Monday."

"Can we… trust you to have a boy stay overnight in the house?" Leroy said.

Rachel was getting exasperated. "Daddy, he's gay. Remember, this is the guy Kurt is almost but not quite dating?" Rachel said, hoping her dads didn't remember that she briefly dated Blaine.

"Well, I guess I don't see any problem with it," said Leroy. "What about you, Hiram?"

"We'll have to call Blaine's parents, of course, but I don't see any reason Blaine can't stay here this weekend."

"Thank you!" Rachel nearly screamed, as she ran back to her room. She texted Blaine, "Success!"

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><p>The first thing Blaine remembered as he got into the Berrys' car was having an iPod shoved in his face. "As our esteemed guest, you are welcome to select whatever music you like for the ride home," Rachel said with an air of semi-formality.<p>

Blaine scrolled through the iPod, impressed by the number of cast albums Rachel owned. "You've got a lot of…" he started, before he got distracted and said, "Ooh! _In the Heights_!".

"You know _In the Heights_?" Rachel inquired.

"Of course I do. It's the only musical I've actually seen on Broadway," Blaine answered.

"You've only seen one musical on Broadway?" Rachel asked, mildly astonished.

"We do live in Ohio."

"Well, I'm sure that when we're older and living in New York and I have my star turn as Fannie Bryce, you'll get to see plenty of Broadway musicals. And in the meantime, you didn't pick a bad one to start with. Please tell me you didn't go when Corbin Bleu was Usnavi."

"Nope. Complete OBC," Blaine said, smiling.

They spent the rest of the car ride chatting and listening to _In the Heights_ and often singing along. They discovered that Rachel could at least sort of rap and that Blaine could not. Somehow during "It Won't Be Long Now", Blaine wound up singing Vanessa's part and Rachel wound up singing Usnavi's part, and by the time they got to Rachel's house, they were convinced that the weekend was going to be awesome.

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><p>Thursday night and Friday morning passed uneventfully. It was late by the time they got home, and after a vegan dinner, Rachel needed to do her homework and go to bed. (Blaine could have sworn that Rachel was the only high schooler in America who had a strict bedtime of 9:30.) Friday morning had been equally boring. Rachel had school, and Blaine had managed to get a few pages of his history paper done. (He suspected that many of Dalton's teachers had read "relationships with their families" as "relationships with their homework".) Finally, Rachel got home from school and Blaine had laid his schoolwork aside.<p>

Rachel and Blaine decided to give Rachel's dads some peace and quiet and left for the basement. Past the mini Rachel Berry shrine and the karaoke machine, there was a big screen TV and, of course, a very large collection of movie musicals.

They decided to start with _Sound of Music_. It was an old favorite for both of them, and Rachel admitted that this was the second copy she had had, since the DVD she got when she was five (back when DVD's were still the cool new technology) had been watched so many times that it wound up scratched beyond belief. They talked and sung throughout the movie. (Rachel did provide the disclaimer that she fully realized this behavior was only appropriate for her basement and that of course she had impeccable theater etiquette.) Rachel would spew out fun facts about the movie because once when she was sick she had watched the directors' commentary and all the behind the scenes features, and when they got to "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", they stood up and followed the choreography, slightly surprised that both of them know it perfectly.

After a fast dinner, they decided to watch _Rent_, and since Rachel found the recording of the last Broadway performance before the actual movie, they opted to watch the former. Blaine always felt that recordings of stage shows were more authentic anyways, and during the first scene, they had a long discussion about the various merits of recorded stage shows versus movie musicals. As they watched, Blaine pointed out that the "honest living" guy totally looked like Wes, to which Rachel said that the character was named Steve and that that actor also understudied for Angel. Blaine found this amusing, since Wes and David performed "I'll Cover You" at the Dalton talent show, and when Blaine teared up a little when Angel died, Rachel had to make a joke about Blaine's undying love for Wes and how David clearly had it much worse.

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><p>The plan had been for Blaine to stay in the Berrys' guest room all weekend, but somehow Blaine found himself on the floor of Rachel's bedroom in Rachel's hot pink sleeping bag at 1 AM on Friday night.<p>

"Let's play truth or dare," Blaine announced suddenly.

"How about just truth?" Rachel said. "I don't want to disturb my dads."

Blaine agreed, and Rachel was the first to spit out the classic "Who do you like?" question.

"Kurt," Blaine answered quickly. "We're kind of dating now."

"You're finally dating? How did I not know about this?" Rachel asked.

"We haven't made it official yet. I mean, it's bad enough being a gay kid in Ohio but being a gay kid dating another gay kid in Ohio…"

"Gotcha."

"And you, Miss Berry? Who do like?"

"You wouldn't know him. He's a college student."

"Still, no reason not to tell me. We are playing truth or dare minus the dare."

"Well, his name is Jesse."

"Jesse St. James?"

"How do you know him?" Rachel asked, taken aback.

"I went to Carmel first semester freshman year. I was in Vocal Adrenaline with him. He got really pissed off when he heard people were bullying me for being gay."

"So he stood up for you?"

"Yeah. He also had awesome hair," Blaine said, blushing a little.

"You totally had a crush on him."

"I did not."

"You so did."

"Okay, fine, maybe a little crush, but I'm all Kurt's now. And anyways, I'm at least 90% sure he's straight. Anyways, assuming that you aren't just crushing on him from watching all of Vocal Adrenaline's performances for the last four years, how do you know Jesse?"

"I, well… I dated him last spring."

"Very nice."

"It was all an act, though," Rachel said, more than a bit disgruntled "He was just pretending to like me because his director was my mom and she wanted to meet me."

"You're Ms. Corcoran's daughter?" Blaine said, slightly shocked. "Anyways, that's beside the point. Jesse's a cool guy, and even if it was an act, he does care about people's feelings. He wouldn't have dated you if he didn't like you."

"He couldn't have liked me too much given that he egged me knowing full well that I'm a vegan. It wasn't a pretty break up. He doesn't even care about me."

"Just give him a chance, Rachel. I think you'll be surprised."

"And how exactly do I do that when he's being all big and superior in California?"

"Well, you're still Facebook friends with him, right?"

Rachel nodded.

"Then I dare you to send him a Facebook message," Blaine said.

"Hey, I thought we said no dares! And what would I write anyways? 'Dear Jesse, I know you were a total jerk last year, but I'm completely pathetic and want you back anyways. Please take me back even though you have no good reason to.'?"

"Oh, come on. Having a crush on Jesse is not pathetic. And you don't have to say that you still like him. Just ask him about UCLA. Say you're looking at it for college."

"I'm going to get into Juilliard. I don't need to look at any other schools."

"First of all, your college counselor will disagree with you about that. Secondly, can it hurt to try?"

"Fine," Rachel said, walking across the room and grabbing her computer. She opened up Facebook and found Jesse's page, recognizing the costume he was wearing in his profile picture as one of those gold outfits that the dancers wear in the final scene of _A Chorus Line_. She hit the "Send message" button and began to type.

_Dear Jesse,_

_I know we haven't talked since_

She paused, deleted "since", and went back to typing.

_I know we haven't talked in awhile, but I've been looking at colleges and am considering UCLA. I am aware that you are a student there this year, and any information you could give me on the school, and the musical theater program in particular, would be greatly appreciated._

_Thank you,_

_Miss Rachel Barbra Berry_

She showed Blaine, who silently nodded in approval and hit send. She and Blaine went back to their game of truth but not dare. They wound up discussing their dream roles and their ideal boyfriends, and Rachel at one point actually explained how Shelby Corcoran was her mother. It was 3 AM by the time they fell asleep.

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><p>By the time Blaine woke up Saturday morning, he knew that it was a good thing that his parents had been out of town that weekend.<p> 


End file.
